750 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
SMALLPOX IN SHEEP. 
Smallpox in sheep is an inflammatory-eruptive disease of 
the skin. It is epizootic, enzootic, and peculiar to sheep, to 
which they are subject but once in their life. The first 
mention of this disease is in the beginning of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, but probably it had existed long before. Since the 
beginning of the sixteenth century, when it is first mentioned 
by MM. Joubert and Rabelais, the affection has reappeared 
from time to time in different countries, and committed great 
ravages amongst the sheep. It has now spread over the 
whole of Europe, and even become enzootic in some places. 
In England it was unknown until a few years ago, 1847, 
when it appeared in Middlesex. In most of the depart¬ 
ments of France it makes its appearance epizootically about 
every ten to fifteen years, but it occurs more frequently in 
the neighbourhood of Paris, where the commerce in sheep 
is more active. The disease shows itself externally by a 
phlegmon of the skin peculiar to the sheep ; this is followed 
by an eruption, more or less general, of pimples, which 
secrete a peculiar fluid, then desiccate and fall off. These 
pimples are of a roundish form, more or less prominent, 
and various in size and number; they appear generally 
on those parts of the skin which are unprovided with wool, 
viz., between the legs, and round the eyes, on the 
nose and the lips, under the tail, genital organs, and the 
udder, but eventually invade the whole of the skin. This 
disease occurs at all times and seasons, but is greatest during 
the heat of summer and the damp cold of autumn and 
winter. It attacks indiscriminately the weak and the strong, 
always, however, beginning with the youngest of the flock. 
It is eminently contagious. It does not affect the same in¬ 
dividual more than once; its effects are sometimes very 
disastrous; a great many of those affected by it die. Nothing 
is found among writers on this subject as to the cause of 
this maladv, and we do not find that what is known of it 
at the present time has thrown any new light on it. It 
appears, however, that the first effects are on the mucous 
membranes of the gastric and respiratory organs, and that it 
is constantly by the irritation of the surfaces of these mem¬ 
branes that the malady commences, and that the irritation 
extends to the skin by decreasing and displacing that of the 
mucous membrane. It was at first thought that flocks 
which pastured in low, marshy land were more subject to it; 
but it has since been ascertained that those on the uplands 
